I used to have so many GI Joe toys. They might still be laying around somewhere actually. I'm going to dig and try to find them. "Mom! Did you throw them out?!"
Here's the short version of the review: GI Joe is good, go watch it. While I was pretty much expecting GI Joe to be terrible and only worth it for fanboys, the truth is that this is probably the best action movie of the summer. Star Trek will be reviewed better, I enjoyed Wolverine more, but GI Joe pretty much hit on all cylinders and didn't let up. It was easily twice as good as Transformers 2.
Degree of difficulty in executing this movie? Pretty high considering all the bad press it was getting. Did the producers, director, and actors/actresses nail it? I'd pretty much say so. Sienna Miller was good as the Baronness, Marlon Wayans was excellent as himself, and everyone else in the cast looked and acted the part. I especially enjoyed Arnold Vosloo as Zartan for some reason. The only casting choice I had an issue with was the President, who was really pretty boring looking.
Overall, GI Joe had a fast moving plot (that actually made sense), a few glimpses of the main characters' pasts, and some pretty awesome action sequences. I don't often like chase scenes but GI Joe has a great one tucked in the middle. The big battle royale at the end reminded me of early Star Wars in terms of energy and execution.
I know a summer movie like this can't be labeled great but it really was quite good. I so want to give it an A and recommend it to all but it's hard to do. Oh dammit, I'll give it an A, for old time's sake. I'm ready for the sequel already!
